Neville Briggs
Sgt. Neville Briggs, known simply as Briggs, is a veteran gear and leader of Dawn Squad. He has been a gear since the beginning of the Locust-Human War, having participated in every major event through the wars duration, including the scouting of Timgad Valley prior to the Lightmass Offensive. Personality & Traits Briggs is known for his muscular build, baldness and bushy, black-colored beard and mustache. Within the early members of Dawn Squad the only member who beat out Briggs in sheer size - height, girth or muscle mass - was Wilfred, a man who often compared to a Boomer in sheer size. He also favors the summer variant of COG armor, preferring his arms to be exposed to the wind. Briggs is a by-the-book man who believes strictly in the chain of command and the ideology of the COG, but knows others may not and usually respects their decisions in life - even should the person be affiliated with the Stranded. He expects his orders to be obeyed to the letter without hesitation and is known to give new recruits a difficult time to toughen them up quicker, examples being the newer recruits of Dawn Squad. He can come across as rude and vulgar because of the profanities he includes is most of his statements, examples being his threat to rip Gary Henderson's balls off if he didn't move quicker so he couldn't "contaminate" the rest of the COG and his remark he'd be "fucked by a Boomer" before letting new recruits hold him back, time-wise. People have been known to jump when he says toad, a testament to his commanding nature and leadership ability. Though most would put it down to his intimidating appearance. His status as a true veteran gives him an air of strengthened will others pick up on and respond positively to, especially new recruits as shown initially by the Quisling brothers and Joceline Smalling. Gary holds him in high regard and follows his orders to the letter through loyalty, despite others claiming he holds more loyalty to the Quisling brothers and Joceline Smalling than he does any one man who follows the ideology of the COG as closely as Briggs. Examples of this behavior is seen during Gary's stint in Jacinto Med. following Operation: Midnight, were he and Anne were arguing as usual. Gary immediately breaks it up when reprimanded by Briggs. Biography Early Life Emergence Day Hammer of Dawn counterattack Fall of Landown Battle of Ephyra Lightmass Offensive Scouting Timgad Valley :Main Article - Gears of War: Rising Scions Chapter 1 - Scouting Timgad Valley. Sgt. Briggs informed his squad that COG High Command was preparing an offensive against the Locust in the near future that could potentially end the war by detonating a bomb within the Hollow. COG Command lacked one major part of intelligence - a feasible location to launch the bomb. With that revealed, Dawn Squad was tasked with scouting out a sinkhole reported at Timgad Valley. Sgt. Briggs was to lead his squad to the Mag-lev train and scout out the location. Gary, Bridgett, Wilfred, John and Malcolm were accompanied by Cpl. Harding and Pvt. Ogilvy of Spear Squad and successfully boarded the train after a subsequent take-over by Locust forces and a small firefight outside the trains platform. Pvt. John Hastings was killed however by Locust forces on the train, which he took out by fragging himself. Briggs observed the sinkhole and informed command were he then began the withdrawal. Their evacuation zone came under heavy attack by Locust forces however, including two Corpers and a Reaver. Pvts. Bridgett McMillan and Wilfred were labelled MIA while Malcolm was shot between the eyes. Only Briggs and Gary, accompanied by Harding and Ogilvy, made it out alive to make their report. Mission to Algangi :Main Article - Gears of War: Rising Scions Chapter 2 - Mission to Algangi. Deploying the Lightmass Bomb :Main Article - Gears of War: Rising Scions Chapter 3 - Deploying the Lightmass Bomb. Trivia Behind the Scenes Little changed in regards to Briggs' character from the initial draft and the end product. He was much more dutiful in the initial draft however, and threatened his squad-mates with court-marshals frequently if they disobeyed him, one or two cases outstanding. He also hated anything to do with the Locust and often berated Dean for using Locust weapon over COG weaponry. He also didn't swear at all. That change was made to keep in line with a hardened soldier who liked getting the point across regardless of vulgarity. Category:Characters Category:Gears